Communication techniques applying low-density parity-check code base graph selection

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to techniques for selecting a base graph to be used for wireless communications. Selection can be based on a variety of factors. Abase graph can be used to derive a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code used for encoding a retransmission of an original transmission. An exemplary method generally includes selecting, based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG), from which to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use in encoding data bits in the codeword (e.g., encoding data bits of a bitstream such that some redundant bits are included in the codeword), encoding the data bits to generate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG, and transmitting the codeword using the MCS via resources of the RA.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present Application for Patent is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/023,807, filed Jun. 29, 2018, pending, whichclaims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.62/529,765, filed Jul. 7, 2017, both of which are assigned to theassignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein intheir entirety as if fully set forth below and for all applicablepurposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Certain aspects of the technology discussed below generally relate towireless communications and, more particularly, to methods and apparatusfor determining base graphs for deriving low-density parity-check (LDPC)codes for use in encoding and decoding data in transmissions.Embodiments can aid in encoding and decoding data by way of techniquesassociated with appropriate base graph selection.

INTRODUCTION

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication content such as voice, video, data, message,broadcasts, and so on. These systems may employ multiple-accesstechnologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users bysharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power).Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multipleaccess (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems,time division synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA) systems, frequency divisionmultiple access (FDMA) systems, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems,orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)long term evolution (LTE) systems, and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) systems.

Multiple access technologies have been adopted in varioustelecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enablesdifferent wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national,regional, and even global level. An example of an emergingtelecommunication standard is new radio (NR), for example, 5G radioaccess. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standardpromulgated by 3GPP. It is designed to better support mobile broadbandInternet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs,improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integratingwith other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on thedownlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL) as well as support beamforming,multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrieraggregation.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system cansimultaneously support communication for multiple wireless nodes. Eachnode communicates with one or more base stations (BSs) via transmissionson forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to acommunication link from BSs to nodes, and a reverse link (or uplink)refers to a communication link from nodes to base stations.Communication links may be established via a single-input single-output,multiple-input single-output, or a MIMO system.

In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system mayinclude a number of BSs, each simultaneously supporting communicationfor multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipment(UEs). In an LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more BSs may definean e NodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a next generation, NR, or5G network), a wireless multiple access communication system may includea number of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes(ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmissionreception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with a number of centralunits (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs),etc.), where a set of one or more DUs, in communication with a CU, maydefine an access node (e.g., a BS, a NR BS, a 5G BS, a NB, an eNB, NRNB, a 5G NB, an access point (AP)), a network node, a gNB, a TRP, etc.).A BS, AN, or DU may communicate with a UE or a set of UEs on downlinkchannels (e.g., for transmissions from a BS or to a UE) and uplinkchannels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a BS, AN, or DU).

Binary values (e.g., ones and zeros), are used to represent andcommunicate various types of information, such as video, audio,statistical information, etc. Unfortunately, during storage,transmission, and/or processing of binary data, errors may beunintentionally introduced; for example, a “1” may be changed to a “0”or vice versa.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The following summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure toprovide a basic understanding of the discussed technology. This summaryis not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of thedisclosure and is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any orall aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present someconcepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in summary form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. Afterconsidering this discussion, and particularly after reading the sectionentitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how the features ofthis disclosure provide advantages that include improved communicationsbetween access points and stations in a wireless network.

Generally, in the case of data transmission, a receiver observes eachreceived bit in the presence of noise or distortion and only anindication of the bit's value is obtained. Under these circumstances,the observed values are interpreted as a source of “soft” bits. A softbit indicates a preferred estimate of the bit's value (e.g., a 1 or a 0)together with some indication of the reliability of that estimate. Whilethe number of errors may be relatively low, even a small number oferrors or level of distortion can result in the data being unusable or,in the case of transmission errors, may necessitate re-transmission ofthe data. In order to provide a mechanism to check for errors and, insome cases, to correct errors, binary data can be coded to introducecarefully designed redundancy. Coding of a unit of data produces what iscommonly referred to as a codeword. Because of its redundancy, acodeword will often include more bits than the input unit of data fromwhich the codeword was produced.

Redundant bits are added by an encoder to the transmitted bitstream tocreate a codeword. When signals arising from transmitted codewords arereceived or processed, the redundant information included in thecodeword as observed in the signal can be used to identify and/orcorrect errors in or remove distortion from the received signal torecover the original data unit. Such error checking and/or correctingcan be implemented as part of a decoding process. In the absence oferrors, or in the case of correctable errors or distortion, decoding canbe used to recover from the source data being processed, the originaldata unit that was encoded. In the case of unrecoverable errors, thedecoding process may produce some indication that the original datacannot be fully recovered. Such indications of decoding failure initiateretransmission of the data.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to methodsand apparatus for determining a base graph used to derive a low-densityparity-check (LDPC) code used for encoding a retransmission of anoriginal transmission.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wirelesscommunications that may be performed by a base station (BS) comprising aprocessor in electrical communication with a memory, the processorconfigured to obtain data from the memory in preparation for wirelesscommunications. The method generally includes transmitting, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, a first codeword to a userequipment (UE), the first codeword encoded using a first low-densityparity-check (LDPC) code derived from a base graph (BG) selected by theprocessor based on a code block size (CBS) and a first code rate of thetransmission, obtaining, by the transceiver circuit, an indication thatthe UE did not receive the first codeword, selecting, by the processor,a second code rate for a retransmission of information bits of the firstcodeword, wherein the selection is from a restricted set of code ratesdesigned to ensure the UE selects a same BG to decode theretransmission, and retransmitting, by the transceiver circuit using theone or more antenna elements, the information bits in a second codewordaccording to the selected second code rate.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wirelesscommunications that may be performed by a base station (BS) comprising aprocessor in electrical communication with a memory, the processorconfigured to obtain data from the memory in preparation for wirelesscommunications. The method generally includes selecting, by theprocessor and based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and aresource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG)stored in said memory, from which to derive a low density parity check(LDPC) code for use in encoding data bits in the codeword, encoding, byan encoder circuit, the data bits to generate the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG, and transmitting, by atransceiver circuit, the codeword using the MCS via resources of the RAusing one or more antenna elements in electrical communication with thetransceiver circuit.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wirelesscommunications that may be performed by a user equipment (UE) comprisinga processor in electrical communication with a memory, the processorconfigured to obtain data from the memory in preparation for wirelesscommunications. The method generally includes receiving, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and resource allocation(RA) for transmission of a codeword, selecting, by the processor andbased on the MCS and the RA, a base graph (BG) from which to derive alow density parity check (LDPC) code for use in decoding the codeword,receiving, by the transceiver circuit using the one or more antennaelements, the codeword via resources of the RA, and decoding, by adecoder circuit, the codeword using the LDPC code derived from theselected BG.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wirelesscommunications that may be performed by a base station (BS) comprising aprocessor in electrical communication with a memory, the processorconfigured to obtain data from the memory in preparation for wirelesscommunications. The method generally includes transmitting, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding data bits of a codeword, encoding, byan encoder circuit, the data bits to generate the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG, and transmitting, by thetransceiver circuit using the one or more antenna elements, thecodeword.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wirelesscommunications that may be performed by a user equipment (UE) comprisinga processor in electrical communication with a memory, the processorconfigured to obtain data from the memory in preparation for wirelesscommunications. The method generally includes receiving, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of a codeword, receiving, by thetransceiver circuit using the one or more antenna elements, thecodeword, and decoding, by a decoder circuit, the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processorconfigured to cause the apparatus to transmit a first codeword to a userequipment (UE), the first codeword encoded using a first low-densityparity-check (LDPC) code derived from a base graph (BG) selected basedon a code block size (CBS) and a first code rate of the transmission, toobtain an indication that the UE did not receive the first codeword, toselect a second code rate for a retransmission of information bits ofthe first codeword, wherein the selection is from a restricted set ofcode rates designed to ensure the UE selects a same BG to decode theretransmission, and to cause the apparatus to retransmit the informationbits in a second codeword according to the selected second code rate.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processorconfigured to select, based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) anda resource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph(BG) from which to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for usein encoding data bits in the codeword to encode the data bits togenerate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG,and to cause the apparatus to transmit the codeword using the MCS andvia resources of the RA, and a memory coupled with the processor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processorconfigured to cause the apparatus to receive control informationindicating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and resource allocation(RA) for transmission of a codeword, to select a base graph (BG), fromwhich to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use indecoding the codeword, based on the MCS and the RA, to cause theapparatus to receive the codeword via resources of the RA, and to decodethe codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG, and amemory coupled with the processor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processorconfigured to cause the apparatus to transmit control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of a codeword, to encode databits to generate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from theselected BG, and to cause the apparatus to transmit the codeword.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processorconfigured to cause the apparatus to receive control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of a codeword, to cause theapparatus to receive the codeword, and to decode the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG, and a memory coupled with theprocessor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means fortransmitting a first codeword to a user equipment (UE), the firstcodeword encoded using a first low-density parity-check (LDPC) codederived from a base graph (BG) selected based on a code block size (CBS)and a first code rate of the transmission, means for obtaining anindication that the UE did not receive the first codeword, means forselecting a second code rate for a retransmission of information bits ofthe first codeword, wherein the selection is from a restricted set ofcode rates designed to ensure the UE selects a same BG to decode theretransmission, and means for retransmitting the information bits in asecond codeword according to the selected second code rate.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means forselecting, based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resourceallocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG), fromwhich to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use inencoding data bits in the codeword, means for encoding the data bits togenerate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG,and means for transmitting the codeword using the MCS via resources ofthe RA.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means forreceiving control information indicating a modulation and coding scheme(MCS) and resource allocation (RA) for transmission of a codeword, meansfor selecting a base graph (BG), from which to derive a low densityparity check (LDPC) code for use in decoding the codeword, based on theMCS and the RA, means for receiving the codeword via resources of theRA, and means for decoding the codeword using the LDPC code derived fromthe selected BG.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means fortransmitting control information indicating a base graph (BG) from whichto derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code used in encoding bitsof a codeword, means for encoding data bits to generate the codewordusing the LDPC code derived from the selected BG, and means fortransmitting the codeword.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus forwireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means forreceiving control information indicating a base graph (BG) from which toderive a low density parity check (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of acodeword, means for receiving the codeword, and means for decoding thecodeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readablemedium for wireless communications. The computer-readable mediumincludes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, causethe processing system to perform operations generally includingtransmitting a first codeword to a user equipment (UE), the firstcodeword encoded using a first low-density parity-check (LDPC) codederived from a base graph (BG) selected based on a code block size (CBS)and a first code rate of the transmission, obtaining an indication thatthe UE did not receive the first codeword, selecting a second code ratefor a retransmission of information bits of the first codeword, whereinthe selection is from a restricted set of code rates designed to ensurethe UE selects a same BG to decode the retransmission, andretransmitting the information bits in a second codeword according tothe selected second code rate.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readablemedium for wireless communications. The computer-readable mediumincludes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, causethe processing system to perform operations generally includingselecting, based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resourceallocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG) fromwhich to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use inencoding data bits in the codeword, encoding the data bits to generatethe codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG, andtransmitting the codeword using the MCS via resources of the RA.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readablemedium for wireless communications. The computer-readable mediumincludes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, causethe processing system to perform operations generally includingreceiving control information indicating a modulation and coding scheme(MCS) and resource allocation (RA) for transmission of a codeword,selecting, based on the MCS and the RA, a base graph (BG), from which toderive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use in decoding thecodeword, receiving the codeword via resources of the RA, and decodingthe codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readablemedium for wireless communications. The computer-readable mediumincludes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, causethe processing system to perform operations generally includingtransmitting control information indicating a base graph (BG) from whichto derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code used in encoding bitsof a codeword, encoding data bits to generate the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG, and transmitting the codeword.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readablemedium for wireless communications. The computer-readable mediumincludes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, causethe processing system to perform operations generally includingreceiving control information indicating a base graph (BG) from which toderive a low density parity check (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of acodeword, receiving the codeword, and decoding the codeword using theLDPC code derived from the selected BG.

Other aspects, features, and embodiments of the present disclosure willbecome apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, upon reviewingthe following description of specific, exemplary aspects of the presentdisclosure in conjunction with the accompanying figures. While featuresof the present disclosure may be discussed relative to certain aspectsand figures below, all aspects of the present disclosure can include oneor more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words,while one or more aspects may be discussed as having certainadvantageous features, one or more of such features may also be used inaccordance with the various aspects of the disclosure discussed herein.In similar fashion, while exemplary aspects may be discussed below asdevice, system, or method embodiments such exemplary embodiments can beimplemented in various devices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the presentdisclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description,briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some ofwhich are illustrated in the appended drawings. The appended drawingsillustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure, however, andare therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for thedescription may admit to other equally effective aspects.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example wirelesscommunication system, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical architectureof a distributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example physical architecture of adistributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of anexample base station (BS) and user equipment (UE), in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing examples for implementing a communicationprotocol stack, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a downlink (DL)-centric subframe, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an uplink (UL)-centric subframe, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a graphical representation of an example low-densityparity-check (LDPC) code, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8A is a matrix representation of the example LDPC code of FIG. 8,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a graphical representation of liftings of the LDPC code ofFIG. 8, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is an integer representation of a matrix for a quasi-cyclic IEEE802.11 LDPC code according to some aspects.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example encoder,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example decoder,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wirelesscommunications, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wirelesscommunications, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wirelesscommunications, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wirelesscommunications, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wirelesscommunications, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. Elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficiallyutilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatuses, methods,processing systems, hardware components, and computer program productsfor determining a base graph (BG) that can be used for deriving alow-density parity-check (LDPC) code. An LPDC code can be used forencoding (and/or decoding) a codeword transmitted in a retransmission ofdata in a new radio (NR) access technology (e.g., 5G radio access)wireless communications system.

The term ‘New Radio’ (abbreviated NR) refers generally to a new type ofcommunication network and related components for implementing 5Gnetworks and beyond. NR may refer to radios configured to operateaccording to a new air interface or fixed transport layer. NR mayinclude support for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) service targetingwide bandwidth (e.g., 80 MHz and wider) communications, millimeter wave(mmW) service targeting high carrier frequency (e.g., 27 GHz and higher)communications, massive machine type communications (mMTC) servicetargeting non-backward compatible machine type communications (MTC)techniques, and/or mission critical (MiCr) service targetingultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). These services mayinclude latency and reliability requirements for a variety of uses,timing requirements, and other design considerations. NR may uselow-density parity-check (LDPC) coding and/or polar codes.

NR standardization has introduced two low-density parity-check (LDPC)base graphs (BG1, BG2) from which an LDPC code may be derived forencoding data (see, e.g., TS 38.212, v 15.1.1, secs. 6.2.2 and 7.2.2).On each slot transmission, one of the base graphs is selected for usage,i.e., for deriving an LDPC code used to encode the transmission. Thebase graph (e.g., BG1 or BG2) used for encoding is implicitly indicatedby code block size and code rate of the transmission.

It is therefore desirable to develop techniques for a UE to determinethe BG used in a transmission. It is also desirable to developtechniques for a UE to determine the BG used in a retransmission insituations in which the UE misses (e.g., fails to properly decode, failsto receive) the control information for the original data transmissionor the original data transmission.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, a BS transmits a choiceof modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resource allocation (RA) indownlink control information (DCI). The DCI can correspond to a datatransmission (e.g., a codeword) that the BS is transmitting or willtransmit. A UE receives the DCI and, if the DCI is intended for the UE,then the UE can determine a transport block size (TBS) for the datatransmission based on the MCS and RA and according to a networkspecification. Upon determination of the TBS, the UE can determine theLDPC BG the BS used to encode a data transmission based on values of thecode block size and code rate implied by the TBS and the RA.

If the UE does not successfully receive the data transmission, then theBS may retransmit the data in a retransmission. For retransmissions,regardless of any new MCS and RA chosen for the retransmission, it isdesirable for the BS to encode the data using the same BG as used forthe original data transmission and for the UE to select the BG used inthe original data transmission for decoding the retransmissions. Usingthe same BG for encoding and decoding the retransmissions may ensureproper hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) combining (e.g.,of the retransmission(s) and the original transmission) and LDPCdecoding of the combination of the original data transmission and anyretransmissions.

Various aspects of the disclosure are described more fully hereinafterwith reference to the accompanying drawings. This disclosure may,however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construedas limited to any specific structure or function presented throughoutthis disclosure. Rather, these aspects are provided so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey thescope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Based on theteachings herein one skilled in the art should appreciate that the scopeof the disclosure is intended to cover any aspect of the disclosuredisclosed herein, whether implemented independently of or combined withany other aspect of the disclosure. For example, an apparatus may beimplemented, or a method may be practiced using any number of theaspects set forth herein. In addition, the scope of the disclosure isintended to cover such an apparatus or method which is practiced usingother structure, functionality, or structure and functionality inaddition to or other than the various aspects of the disclosure setforth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosuredisclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim. Theword “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary”is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous overother aspects.

Although particular aspects are described herein, many variations andpermutations of these aspects fall within the scope of the disclosure.Although some benefits and advantages of the preferred aspects arementioned, the scope of the disclosure is not intended to be limited toparticular benefits, uses, or objectives. Rather, aspects of thedisclosure are intended to be broadly applicable to different wirelesstechnologies, system configurations, networks, and transmissionprotocols, some of which are illustrated by way of example in thefigures and in the following description of the preferred aspects. Thedetailed description and drawings are merely illustrative of thedisclosure rather than limiting, the scope of the disclosure beingdefined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication networks such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA)networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The terms“networks” and “systems” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA networkmay implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (UTRA), CDMA2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) andLow Chip Rate (LCR). CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856standards. A TDMA network may implement a radio technology such asGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network mayimplement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11,IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA, E-UTRA, and GSM arepart of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP LTE andLTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA,UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from an organizationnamed “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). CDMA2000 is describedin documents from an organization named “3rd Generation PartnershipProject 2” (3GPP2). NR is an emerging wireless communications technologyunder development in conjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF).These communications networks are merely listed as examples of networksin which the techniques described in this disclosure may be applied;however, this disclosure is not limited to the above-describedcommunications network.

For clarity, while aspects may be described herein using terminologycommonly associated with 3G and/or 4G or LTE wireless technologies,aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in othergeneration-based communication systems, such as 5G and later, includingNR or 5G/NR technologies.

An Example Wireless Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communications network 100 in whichaspects of the present disclosure may be performed. Wirelesscommunications network 100 may be a new radio (NR) or 5G network.Wireless communications network 100 may include a transmitting devicesuch as a user equipment (UE) 120 or a base station (BS) 110.Transmitting devices can communicate with one or more other devices andutilize techniques discussed herein to communicate efficiently and in avariety of manners as envisioned to be brought about by 5Gcommunications technology.

Innovations discussed in this disclosure can be implemented fortransmissions and receptions. In one example, a transmitting device mayperform encoding according to aspects described herein using lifted LDPCcodes that may be compactly described (e.g.,determined/generated/stored). In another example, a receiving device(e.g., a UE 120 or a BS 110) can perform corresponding decodingoperations. In some aspects, a transmitting device can select at leastone lifting size value for generating a group of lifted LDPC codescomprising copies of a base LDPC code defined by a base matrix having afirst number of base variable nodes and a second number of base checknodes. The lifting size value is selected from a range of values. Thetransmitting device can generate a base matrix based on a lifting valueof a set of lifting values associated with the selected lifting sizevalue and generate a matrix for a different lifting size value in thegroup based on the base matrix.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, wireless communications network 100 mayinclude a number of BSs 110 and other network entities. A BS may be astation that communicates with UEs. Each BS 110 may providecommunication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, theterm “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a Node B and/or a Node Bsubsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in whichthe term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” and gNB, Node B, 5G NB,AP, NR BS, NR BS, TRP, etc., may be interchangeable. In some examples, acell may not necessarily be stationary. And the geographic area of thecell may move according to the location of a mobile BS. In someexamples, the BSs may be interconnected to one another and/or to one ormore other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in wireless communicationsnetwork 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces such as adirect physical connection, a virtual network, or the like using anysuitable transport network.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a givengeographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radioaccess technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. ARAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface,etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a frequencychannel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a givengeographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networksof different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployedin concert with 2G, 3G, 4G, licensed, un-licensed, hybrid, and/or futurenetworks.

A BS may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, afemto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover arelatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius)and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. Apico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allowunrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell maycover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allowrestricted access by UEs having association with the femto cell (e.g.,UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs for users in the home,etc.). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS fora pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell maybe referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in FIG.1, BS 110 a, BS 110 b, and BS 110 c may be macro BSs for the macro cell102 a, macro cell 102 b, and macro cell 102 c, respectively. BS 110 xmay be a pico BS for pico cell 102 x. BS 110 y and BS 110 z may be femtoBS for the femto cell 102 y and femto cell 102 z, respectively. A BS maysupport one or multiple (e.g., three) cells.

Wireless communications network 100 may also include relay stations. Arelay station is a station that receives a transmission of data and/orother information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS 110 or a UE 120).A relay station can send a transmission of the data and/or otherinformation to a downstream station (e.g., a UE 120 or a BS 110). Arelay station may also be a UE that relays transmissions for other UEs.In the example shown in FIG. 1, relay station 110 r may communicate withBS 110 a and UE 120 r in order to facilitate communication between BS110 a and UE 120 r. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay,a relay eNB, etc.

Wireless communications network 100 may be a heterogeneous network thatincludes BSs of different types, for example, macro BS, pico BS, femtoBS, relays, etc. These different types of BSs may have differenttransmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact oninterference in the wireless communications network 100. For example, amacro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereaspico BS, femto BS, and relays may have a lower transmit power level(e.g., 1 Watt).

Wireless communications network 100 may support synchronous orasynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs may havesimilar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may beapproximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs mayhave different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs maynot be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used forboth synchronous and asynchronous operation.

Network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs and providecoordination and control for these BSs. Network controller 130 maycommunicate with BSs 110 via a backhaul. BSs 110 may also communicatewith one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via wireless or wirelinebackhaul.

UEs 120 (e.g., UE 120 x, UE 120 y, etc.) may be dispersed throughoutwireless communications network 100, and each UE may be stationary ormobile. A UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, anaccess terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer PremisesEquipment (CPE), a cellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, ahandheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless localloop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, asmartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or medical equipment, abiometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smartclothing, smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., asmart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., amusic device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicularcomponent or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturingequipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitabledevice that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.Some UEs may be considered evolved or machine-type communication (MTC)devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, forexample, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors,location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device(e.g., remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node mayprovide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a widearea network such as Internet or a cellular network) via a wired orwireless communication link. Some UEs may be consideredInternet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

In FIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desiredtransmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is a BS designated toserve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A finely dashed line withdouble arrows indicates interfering transmissions between a UE and a BS.

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrierfrequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDMpartition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers,which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarriermay be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent inthe frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Thespacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total numberof subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. Forexample, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimumresource allocation (called a “resource block” (RB)) may be 12subcarriers (i.e., 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal Fast FourierTransform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 forsystem bandwidth of 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz,respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned intosubbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 RBs), andthere may be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25 MHz,2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz, respectively.

NR may utilize OFDM with a CP on uplink and downlink and include supportfor half-duplex operation using TDD. A single component carrierbandwidth of 100 MHz may be supported. NR RBs may span 12 subcarrierswith a subcarrier bandwidth of 75 kHz over a 0.1 ms duration. Each radioframe may consist of 2 half frames, each half frame consisting of 5subframes, with a length of 10 ms. Consequently, each subframe may havea length of 1 ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (i.e.,downlink or uplink) for data transmission and the link direction foreach subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may includeDL/UL data as well as DL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR maybe as described in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7.Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamicallyconfigured. MIMO transmissions with precoding may also be supported.MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas withmulti-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE.Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE may be supported.Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 servingcells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, otherthan an OFDM-based.

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled. Forexample, a scheduling entity (e.g., a BS 110 or UE 120) allocatesresources for communication among some or all devices and equipmentwithin its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, asdiscussed further below, the scheduling entity may be responsible forscheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one ormore subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communication,subordinate entities utilize resources allocated by the schedulingentity. BSs are not the only entities that may function as a schedulingentity. That is, in some examples, a UE may function as a schedulingentity, scheduling resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g.,one or more other UEs). In this example, the UE is functioning as ascheduling entity, and other UEs utilize resources scheduled by the UEfor wireless communication. A UE may function as a scheduling entity ina peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and/or in a mesh network. In a meshnetwork example, UEs may optionally communicate directly with oneanother in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity.

Thus, in a wireless communication network with a scheduled access totime-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2Pconfiguration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one ormore subordinate entities may communicate utilizing the scheduledresources.

The NR radio access network (RAN) may include one or more central units(CUs) and distributed units (DUs). A NR BS (e.g., a gNB, a 5G NB, a NB,a 5G NB, a transmission reception point (TRP), an AP) may correspond toone or multiple cells. NR cells can be configured as access cells(ACells) or data only cells (DCells). DCells may be cells used forcarrier aggregation or dual connectivity, but not used for initialaccess, cell selection/reselection, or handover.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example logical architecture of a distributed RAN200. In some aspects, the RAN 200 may be implemented in wirelesscommunications system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. 5G access node (AN) 206may include access node controller (ANC) 202. The ANC 202 may be a CU ofdistributed RAN 200. A backhaul interface to next generation corenetwork (NG-CN) 204 may terminate at ANC 202. A backhaul interface toneighboring next generation access nodes (NG-ANs) may terminate at ANC202. ANC 202 may include one or more TRPs 208.

TRPs 208 comprise DUs. TRPs 208 may be connected to one ANC (ANC 202) ormore than one ANC (not illustrated). For example, for RAN sharing, radioas a service (RaaS), and service specific AND deployments, the TRP maybe connected to more than one ANC 202. A TRP 208 may include one or moreantenna ports. TRPs 208 may be configured to individually (e.g., dynamicselection) or jointly (e.g., joint transmission) serve traffic to a UE(e.g., a UE 120).

Example logical architecture of the distributed RAN 200 may be used toillustrate fronthaul definition. The logical architecture may supportfronthauling solutions across different deployment types. For example,the logical architecture may be based on transmit network capabilities(e.g., bandwidth, latency, and/or jitter). The logical architecture mayshare features and/or components with LTE. NG-AN 210 may support dualconnectivity with NR. NG-AN 210 may share a common fronthaul for LTE andNR. The logical architecture may enable cooperation between and amongTRPs 208. For example, cooperation may be pre-configured within a TRP208 and/or across TRPs 208 via ANC 202. There may be no inter-TRPinterface.

The logical architecture for distributed RAN 200 may include a dynamicconfiguration of split logical functions. As will be described in moredetail with reference to FIG. 5, the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer,Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC)layer, Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layersmay be placed at the DU (e.g., a TRP 208) or the CU (e.g., ANC 202).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example physical architecture of a distributed RAN300, according to aspects of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3,distributed RAN 300 includes centralized core network unit (C-CU) 302,centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304, and DU 306.

C-CU 302 may host core network functions. C-CU 302 may be centrallydeployed. C-CU 302 functionality may be offloaded (e.g., to advancedwireless services (AWS)), in an effort to handle peak capacity. C-RU 304may host one or more ANC functions. Optionally, C-RU 304 may host corenetwork functions locally. C-RU 304 may have a distributed deployment.C-RU 304 may be located near an edge the network. DU 306 may host one ormore TRPs (edge node (EN), an edge unit (EU), a radio head (RH), a smartradio head (SRH), or the like). DU 306 may be located at edges of thenetwork with radio frequency (RF) functionality.

FIG. 4 illustrates example components of the BS 110 and the UE 120illustrated in FIG. 1. These components can be used to implement aspectsof the present disclosure for high performance, flexible, and compactLDPC coding. One or more of the components of BS 110 and UE 120illustrated in FIG. 4 may be used to practice aspects of the presentdisclosure. For example, antenna(s) 452 a-454 r,Demodulator(s)/Modulator(s) 454 a-454 r, TX MIMO processor 466, ReceiveProcessor 458, Transmit Processor 464, and/or Controller/Processor 480of UE 120 and/or antenna(s) 434 a-434 t, Demodulator(s)/Modulator(s) 432a-434 t, TX MIMO Processors 430, Transmit Processor 420, ReceiveProcessor 438, and/or Controller/Processor 440 of BS 110 may be used toperform the operations 1300-1700 described herein and illustrated withreference to FIGS. 13-17, respectively.

For a restricted association scenario, BS 110 may be macro BS 110 c inFIG. 1, and UE 120 may be UE 120 y. BS 110 may also be a BS of someother type. BS 110 may be equipped with antennas 434 a through 434 t andUE 120 may be equipped with antennas 452 a through 452 r.

At BS 110, transmit processor 420 may receive data from data source 412and control information from controller/processor 440. The controlinformation may be for the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), PhysicalControl Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), Physical Hybrid ARQ IndicatorChannel (PHICH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), or othercontrol channel or signal. The data may be for the Physical DownlinkShared Channel (PDSCH), or other data channel or signal.

Transmit processor 420 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) dataand control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols,respectively. For example, transmit processor 420 may encode theinformation bits using LPDC code designs discussed in greater detailbelow. Transmit processor 420 may also generate reference symbols, forexample, for the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondarysynchronization signal (SSS), and cell-specific reference signal (CRS).Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 430 mayperform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, thecontrol symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and mayprovide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) 432 a through 432t. Each modulator 432 may process a respective output symbol stream(e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator432 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, andupconvert) an output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. Downlinksignals from modulators 432 a through 432 t may be transmitted viaantennas 434 a through 434 t, respectively.

At UE 120, antennas 452 a through 452 r may receive downlink signalsfrom BS 110 and may provide received signals to the demodulators(DEMODs) 454 a through 454 r, respectively. Each demodulator 454 maycondition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) arespective received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 454may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtainreceived symbols. MIMO detector 456 may obtain received symbols from oneor more demodulators 454 a through 454 r, perform MIMO detection on thereceived symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receiveprocessor 458 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode)detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to a data sink 460,and provide decoded control information to controller/processor 480.

On the uplink, at UE 120, transmit processor 464 may receive and processdata (e.g., for the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or other datachannel or signal) from data source 462 and control information (e.g.,for the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or other control channelor signal) from controller/processor 480. Transmit processor 464 mayalso generate reference symbols for a reference signal. The symbols fromtransmit processor 464 may be precoded by TX MIMO processor 466 ifapplicable, further processed by demodulators 454 a through 454 r (e.g.,for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to BS 110. At BS 110, the uplinksignals from the UE 120 may be received by antennas 434, processed bymodulators 432, detected by MIMO detector 436 if applicable, and furtherprocessed by receive processor 438 to obtain decoded data and controlinformation sent by UE 120. Receive processor 438 may provide thedecoded data to data sink 439 and the decoded control information tocontroller/processor 440.

The UE 120 can include additional components and features working intandem with the controller/processor 440. Memory 442 may store data andprogram codes for BS 110 and memory 482 may store data and program codesfor UE 120. Scheduler 444 may schedule UEs for data transmission on thedownlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagram 500 showing examples for implementing acommunications protocol stack per aspects of the present disclosure. Theillustrated communications protocol stacks may be implemented by devicesoperating in a in a 5G system (e.g., a system that supports uplink-basedmobility). Diagram 500 illustrates a communications protocol stackincluding RRC layer 510, PDCP layer 515, RLC layer 520, MAC layer 525,and PHY layer 530. In an example, the layers of a protocol stack may beimplemented as separate modules of software, portions of a processor orASIC, portions of non-collocated devices connected by a communicationslink, or various combinations thereof. Collocated and non-collocatedimplementations may be used, for example, in a protocol stack for anetwork access device (e.g., ANs, CUs, and/or DUs) or a UE.

A first option 505-a shows a split implementation of a protocol stack,in which implementation of the protocol stack is split between acentralized network access device (e.g., ANC 202) and distributednetwork access device (e.g., DU 208). In the first option 505-a, RRClayer 510 and PDCP layer 515 may be implemented by the CU, and RLC layer520, MAC layer 525, and PHY layer 530 may be implemented by the DU. Invarious examples, the CU and the DU may be collocated or non-collocated.The first option 505-a may be useful in a macro cell, micro cell, orpico cell deployment.

A second option 505-b shows a unified implementation of a protocolstack, in which the protocol stack is implemented in a single networkaccess device (e.g., access node (AN), NR BS, a NR NBa network node(NN), TRP, gNB, etc.). In the second option, RRC layer 510, PDCP layer515, RLC layer 520, MAC layer 525, and PHY layer 530 may each beimplemented by the AN. The second option 505-b may be useful in a femtocell deployment.

Regardless of whether a network access device implements part or all ofa protocol stack, a UE may implement the entire protocol stack 505-c(e.g., RRC layer 510, PDCP layer 515, RLC layer 520, MAC layer 525, andPHY layer 530).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a DL-centric subframe 600. TheDL-centric subframe 600 may include control portion 602. Control portion602 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of DL-centric subframe600. Control portion 602 may include various scheduling informationand/or control information corresponding to various portions ofDL-centric subframe 600. In some configurations, control portion 602 maybe a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), as shown in FIG. 6. DL-centricsubframe 600 may also include DL data portion 604. DL data portion 604may be referred to as the payload of DL-centric subframe 600. DL dataportion 604 may include the communication resources utilized tocommunicate DL data from the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS) to thesubordinate entity (e.g., UE). In some configurations, DL data portion604 may be a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH).

DL-centric subframe 600 may also include common UL portion 606. CommonUL portion 606 may be referred to as an UL burst, a common UL burst,and/or various other suitable terms. Common UL portion 606 may includefeedback information corresponding to various other portions ofDL-centric subframe 600. For example, common UL portion 606 may includefeedback information corresponding to control portion 602. Non-limitingexamples of feedback information may include an acknowledgment (ACK)signal, a negative acknowledgment (NACK) signal, a HARQ indicator,and/or various other suitable types of information. Common UL portion606 may additionally or alternatively include information, such asinformation pertaining to random access channel (RACH) procedures,scheduling requests (SRs), and various other suitable types ofinformation. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the end of DL data portion 604may be separated in time from the beginning of common UL portion 606.This time separation may be referred to as a gap, a guard period, aguard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separationprovides time for the switchover from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)) to UL communication(e.g., transmission by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)). The foregoingis merely one example of a DL-centric subframe and alternativestructures having similar features may exist without necessarilydeviating from the aspects described herein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an UL-centric subframe 700.UL-centric subframe 700 may include control portion 702. Control portion702 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of UL-centric subframe700. Control portion 702 in FIG. 7 may be similar to control portion 602described above with reference to FIG. 6. UL-centric subframe 700 mayalso include UL data portion 704. UL data portion 704 may be referred toas the payload of UL-centric subframe 700. UL data portion 704 may referto the communication resources utilized to communicate UL data from thesubordinate entity (e.g., UE) to the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS).In some configurations, control portion 702 may be a PDCCH.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the end of control portion 702 may beseparated in time from the beginning of UL data portion 704. This timeseparation may be referred to as a gap, guard period, guard interval,and/or various other suitable terms. This separation provides time forthe switchover from DL communication (e.g., reception operation by thescheduling entity) to UL communication (e.g., transmission by thescheduling entity). UL-centric subframe 700 may also include common ULportion 706. Common UL portion 706 in FIG. 7 may be similar to thecommon UL portion 606 described above with reference to FIG. 6. CommonUL portion 706 may additionally or alternatively include informationpertaining to channel quality indicator (CQI), sounding referencesignals (SRSs), and various other suitable types of information. Theforegoing is merely one example of an UL-centric subframe andalternative structures having similar features may exist withoutnecessarily deviating from the aspects described herein.

In some circumstances, two or more subordinate entities (e.g., UEs) maycommunicate with each other using sidelink signals. Real-worldapplications of such sidelink communications may include public safety,proximity services, UE-to-network relaying, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)communications, Internet-of-Everything (IoE) communications, IoTcommunications, mission-critical mesh, and/or various other suitableapplications. Generally, a sidelink signal may refer to a signalcommunicated from one subordinate entity (e.g., UE1) to anothersubordinate entity (e.g., UE2) without relaying that communicationthrough the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though thescheduling entity may be utilized for scheduling and/or controlpurposes. In some examples, the sidelink signals may be communicatedusing a licensed spectrum (unlike wireless local area networks (WLAN),which typically use an unlicensed spectrum).

A UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including aconfiguration associated with transmitting pilots using a dedicated setof resources (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) dedicated state,etc.) or a configuration associated with transmitting pilots using acommon set of resources (e.g., an RRC common state, etc.). Whenoperating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated setof resources for transmitting a pilot signal to a network. Whenoperating in the RRC common state, the UE may select a common set ofresources for transmitting a pilot signal to the network. In eithercase, a pilot signal transmitted by the UE may be received by one ormore network access devices, such as an AN, or a DU, or portionsthereof. Each receiving network access device may be configured toreceive and measure pilot signals transmitted on the common set ofresources, and also receive and measure pilot signals transmitted ondedicated sets of resources allocated to the UEs for which the networkaccess device is a member of a monitoring set of network access devicesfor the UE. One or more of the receiving network access devices, or a CUto which receiving network access device(s) transmit the measurements ofthe pilot signals, may use the measurements to identify serving cellsfor the UEs, or to initiate a change of serving cell for one or more ofthe UEs.

Many communications systems use error-correcting codes. Error correctingcodes generally compensate for the intrinsic unreliability ofinformation transfer (e.g., over the air medium) in these systems byintroducing redundancy into the data stream. Low-density parity-check(LDPC) codes are one type of error correcting codes which use aniterative coding system. Gallager codes are an example of “regular” LDPCcodes. Regular LDPC codes are linear block codes in which most of theelements of its parity check matrix H are ‘0’.

LDPC codes can be represented by bipartite graphs (often referred to as“Tanner graphs”). In a bipartite graph, a set of variable nodescorresponds to bits of a codeword (e.g., information bits or systematicbits), and a set of check nodes correspond to a set of parity-checkconstraints that define the code. Edges in the graph connect variablenodes to check nodes. Thus, the nodes of the graph are separated intotwo distinctive sets and with edges connecting nodes of two differenttypes, variable and check.

Graphs as used in LDPC coding may be characterized in a variety ofmanners. A lifted code is created by copying a bipartite base graph (G)(or a protograph), a number of times, Z. The number of times is referredto herein as the lifting, lifting size, or lifting size value. Avariable node and a check node are considered “neighbors” if they areconnected by an “edge” (i.e., the line connecting the variable node andthe check node) in the graph. In addition, for each edge (e) of thebipartite base graph (G), a permutation (generally an integer valueassociated with the edge permutation that is represented by k andreferred to as the lifting value) is applied to the Z copies of edge (e)to interconnect the Z copies of G. A bit sequence having a one-to-oneassociation with the variable node sequence is a valid codeword if andonly if, for each check node, the bits associated with all neighboringvariable nodes sum to 0 modulo 2 (i.e., they include an even number of1's). The resulting LDPC code may be quasi-cyclic (QC) if thepermutations (liftings values) used are cyclic.

FIGS. 8-8A show graphical and matrix representations, respectively, ofan example LDPC code, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. For example, FIG. 8 shows a bipartite graph 800 representingan example LDPC code. Bipartite graph 800 includes a set of fivevariable nodes 810 (represented by circles) connected to four checknodes 820 (represented by squares). Edges in bipartite graph 800 connectvariable nodes 810 to check nodes 820 (the edges are represented by thelines connecting variable nodes 810 to check nodes 820). Bipartite graph800 consists of |V|=5 variable nodes and |C|=4 check nodes, connected by|E|=12 edges.

Bipartite graph 800 may be represented by a simplified adjacency matrix,which may also be known as a parity check matrix (PCM). FIG. 8A shows amatrix representation 800A of bipartite graph 800. Matrix representation800A includes a PCM H and a codeword vector x, where x1-x5 representbits of the codeword x. H is used for determining whether a receivedsignal was normally decoded. H has C rows corresponding to j check nodesand V columns corresponding to i variable nodes (i.e., a demodulatedsymbol), where the rows represent the equations and the columnsrepresents the bits of the codeword. In FIG. 8A, matrix H has four rowsand five columns corresponding to four check nodes and five variablenodes, respectively. If a j-th check node is connected to an i-thvariable node by an edge (i.e., the two nodes are neighbors), then thereis a 1 in the i-th column and in the j-th row of the parity check matrixH. That is, the intersection of an i-th row and a j-th column contains a“1” where an edge joins the corresponding vertices and a “0” where thereis no edge. The codeword vector x represents a valid codeword if andonly if Hx=0, for example, if for each constraint node, the bitsneighboring the constraint, via their association with variable nodes,sum to 0 modulo 2 (i.e., they comprise an even number of 1's). Thus, ifthe codeword is received correctly, then Hx=0 (mod 2). When the productof a coded received signal and the PCM H becomes ‘0’, this signifiesthat no error has occurred.

The number of demodulated symbols or variable nodes is the LDPC codelength. The number of non-zero elements in a row (column) is defined asthe row (column) weight d(c)d(v). The degree of a node refers to thenumber of edges connected to that node. For example, as shown in FIG. 8,the variable node 801 has three degrees of connectivity, with edgesconnected to check nodes 811, 812, and 813. Variable node 802 has threedegrees of connectivity, with edges connected to check nodes 811, 813,and 814. Variable node 803 has two degrees of connectivity, with edgesconnected to check nodes 811 and 814. Variable node 804 has two degreesof connectivity, with edges connected to check nodes 812 and 814. Andvariable node 805 has two degrees of connectivity, with edges connectedto check nodes 812 and 813. This feature is illustrated in the matrix Hshown in FIG. 8A where the number of edges incident to a variable node810 is equal to the number of l's in the corresponding column and iscalled the variable node degree d(v). Similarly, the number of edgesconnected with a check node 820 is equal to the number of ones in acorresponding row and is called the check node degree d(c). For example,as shown in FIG. 8A, the first column in the matrix H corresponds to thevariable node 801 and the corresponding entries in the column (1, 1, 1,0) indicates the edge connections to the check nodes 811, 812, and 813,while the 0 indicates that there is not an edge to check node 814. Theentries in the second, third, fourth, and fourth columns of H representthe edge connections of the variable nodes 802, 803, 804, and 805,respectively, to the check nodes.

A regular graph or a regular code is one for which all variable nodeshave the same degree and all constraint nodes have the same degree. Onthe other hand, an irregular code has constraint nodes and/or variablenodes of differing degrees. For example, some variable nodes may be ofdegree 4, others of degree 3, and still others of degree 2.

“Lifting” enables LDPC codes to be implemented using parallel encodingand/or decoding implementations while also reducing the complexitytypically associated with large LDPC codes. Lifting helps enableefficient parallelization of LDPC decoders while still having arelatively compact description. More specifically, lifting is atechnique for generating a relatively large LDPC code from multiplecopies of a smaller base code. For example, a lifted LDPC code may begenerated by producing Z parallel copies of the base graph (e.g.,protograph) and then interconnecting the parallel copies throughpermutations of edge bundles of each copy of the base graph. The basegraph defines the (macro) structure of the code and consists of a number(K) of information bit columns and a number (N) of code bit columns.Lifting the base graph a number of liftings, Z, results in a finalinformation block length of KZ. Some information bits can be shortened(set to 0) to realize information block lengths less than KZ.

Thus, a larger graph can be obtained by a “copy and permute” operationwhere multiple copies of the base graph are made and connected to form asingle lifted graph. For the multiple copies, like edges that are a setof copies of a single base edge are permutated and connected to form aconnected graph Z times larger than the base graph.

FIG. 9 is a bipartite graph illustrating liftings of three copies of thebipartite graph 800 of FIG. 8. Three copies may be interconnected bypermuting like edges among the copies. If the permutations arerestricted to cyclic permutations, then the resulting bipartite graph900 corresponds to a quasi-cyclic LDPC with lifting Z=3. The originalgraph 800 from which three copies were made is referred to herein as thebase graph. To obtain graphs of different sizes, “copy and permute”operation can be applied to the base graph.

A corresponding PCM of the lifted graph can be constructed from theparity check matrix of the base graph by replacing each entry in thebase parity check matrix with a Z×Z matrix. The “0” entries (thosehaving no base edges) are replaced with the 0 matrix and the 1 entries(indicating a base edge) are replaced with a Z×Z permutation matrix. Inthe case of cyclic liftings, the permutations are cyclic permutations.

A cyclically lifted LDPC code can also be interpreted as a code over thering of binary polynomials modulo xz+1. In this interpretation, a binarypolynomial, (x)=b0+b1x+b2x2++bz−1xz−1 may be associated to each variablenode in the base graph. The binary vector (b0, b1, b2, . . . , bz−1)corresponds to the bits associated to Z corresponding variable nodes inthe lifted graph, that is, Z copies of a single base variable node. Acyclic permutation by k (referred to as a lifting value associated tothe edges in the graph) of the binary vector is achieved by multiplyingthe corresponding binary polynomial by xk where multiplication is takenmodulo xz+1. A degree d parity check in the base graph can beinterpreted as a linear constraint on the neighboring binary polynomialsB1(x), . . . , Bd(x), written as x^(k) ¹ B1(x)+x^(k) ² B2(x)++x^(k) ^(d)Bd(x)=0x^(k) ¹ −B1(x)+x^(k) ² B2(x)++x^(k) ^(d) Bd(x)=0, the values, k1,. . . , kd are the cyclic lifting values associated to the correspondingedges.

This resulting equation is equivalent to the Z parity checks in thecyclically lifted Tanner graph corresponding to the single associatedparity check in the base graph. Thus, the parity check matrix for thelifted graph can be expressed using the matrix for the base graph inwhich 1 entries are replaced with monomials of the form xk and 0 entriesare lifted as 0, but now the 0 is interpreted as the 0 binary polynomialmodulo xz+1. Such a matrix may be written by giving the value k in placeof xk. In this case the 0 polynomial is sometimes represented as “−1”and sometimes as another character in order to distinguish it from x0.

Typically, a square submatrix of the parity check matrix represents theparity bits of the code. The complementary columns correspond toinformation bits that, at the time of encoding, are set equal to theinformation bits to be encoded. The encoding may be achieved by solvingfor the variables in the aforementioned square submatrix in order tosatisfy the parity check equations. The parity check matrix H may bepartitioned into two parts M and N, where M is the square portion. Thus,encoding reduces to solving Mc=s=Nd where c and d comprise x. In thecase of quasi-cyclic codes, or cyclically lifted codes, the abovealgebra can be interpreted as being over the ring of binary polynomialsmodulo xz+1. In the case of the IEEE 802.11 LDPC codes, which arequasi-cyclic, the encoding submatrix M has an integer representation asshown in FIG. 10.

A received LDPC codeword can be decoded to produce a reconstructedversion of the original codeword. In the absence of errors, or in thecase of correctable errors, decoding can be used to recover the originaldata unit that was encoded. Redundant bits may be used by decoders todetect and correct bit errors. LDPC decoder(s) generally operate byiteratively performing local calculations and passing those results byexchanging messages within the bipartite graph along the edges, andupdating these messages by performing computations at the nodes based onthe incoming messages. These steps may be repeated several times. Forexample, each variable node 810 in the graph 800 may initially beprovided with a “soft bit” (e.g., representing the received bit of thecodeword) that indicates an estimate of the associated bit's value asdetermined by observations from the communications channel. Using thesesoft bits the LDPC decoders may update messages by iteratively readingthem, or some portion thereof, from memory and writing an updatedmessage, or some portion thereof, back to, memory. The update operationsare typically based on the parity check constraints of the correspondingLDPC code. In implementations for lifted LDPC codes, messages on likeedges are often processed in parallel.

LDPC codes designed for high speed applications often use quasi-cyclicconstructions with large lifting factors and relatively small basegraphs to support high parallelism in encoding and decoding operations.LDPC codes with higher code rates (e.g., the ratio of the message lengthto the codeword length) tend to have relatively fewer parity checks. Ifthe number of base parity checks is smaller than the degree of avariable node (e.g., the number of edges connected to a variable node),then, in the base graph, that variable node is connected to at least oneof the base parity checks by two or more edges (e.g., the variable nodemay have a “double edge”). If the number of base parity checks issmaller than the degree of a variable node (e.g., the number of edgesconnected to a variable node), then, in the base graph, that variablenode is connected to at least one of the base parity checks by two ormore edges. Having a base variable node and a base check node connectedby two or more edges is generally undesirable for parallel hardwareimplementation purposes. For example, such double edges may result inmultiple concurrent read and write operations to the same memorylocations, which in turn may create data coherency problems. A doubleedge in a base LDPC code may trigger parallel reading of the same softbit value memory location twice during a single parallel parity checkupdate. Thus, additional circuitry is typically needed to combine thesoft bit values that are written back to memory, so as to properlyincorporate both updates. Eliminating double edges in the LDPC codehelps to avoid this extra complexity.

LDPC code designs based on cyclic lifting can be interpreted, as codesover the ring of polynomials modulo may be binary polynomials moduloxZ−1, where Z is the lifting size (e.g., the size of the cycle in thequasi-cyclic code). Thus encoding such codes can often be interpreted asan algebraic operation in this ring.

In the definition of standard irregular LDPC code ensembles (degreedistributions) all edges in the Tanner graph representation may bestatistically interchangeable. In other words, there exists a singlestatistical equivalence class of edges. A more detailed discussion oflifted LDPC codes may be found, for example, in the book titled, “ModernCoding Theory,” published Mar. 17, 2008, by Tom Richardson and RuedigerUrbanke. For multi-edge LDPC codes, multiple equivalence classes ofedges may be possible. While in the standard irregular LDPC ensembledefinition, nodes in the graph (both variable and constraint) arespecified by their degree, i.e., the number of edges they are connectedto, in the multi-edge type setting an edge degree is a vector; itspecifies the number of edges connected to the node from each edgeequivalence class (type) independently. A multi-edge type ensemble iscomprised of a finite number of edge types. The degree type of aconstraint node is a vector of (non-negative) integers; the i-th entryof this vector records the number of sockets of the i-th type connectedto such a node. This vector may be referred to as an edge degree. Thedegree type of a variable node has two parts although it can be viewedas a vector of (non-negative) integers. The first part relates to thereceived distribution and will be termed the received degree and thesecond part specifies the edge degree. The edge degree plays the samerole as for constraint nodes. Edges are typed as they pair sockets ofthe same type. The constraint that sockets must pair with sockets oflike type characterizes the multi-edge type concept. In a multi-edgetype description, different node types can have different receiveddistributions (e.g., the associated bits may go through differentchannels).

Puncturing is the act of removing bits from a codeword to yield ashorter codeword. Thus, punctured variable nodes correspond to codewordbits that are not actually transmitted. Puncturing a variable node in anLDPC code creates a shortened code (e.g. due to the removal of a bit),while also effectively removing a check node. Specifically, for a matrixrepresentation of an LDPC code, including bits to be punctured, wherethe variable node to be punctured has a degree of one (such arepresentation may be possible through row combining provided the codeis proper), puncturing the variable node removes the associated bit fromthe code and effectively removes its single neighboring check node fromthe graph. As a result, the number of check nodes in the graph isreduced by one.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an encoder, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 11 is asimplified block diagram 1100 illustrating a portion of radio frequency(RF) modem 1150 that may be configured to provide a signal including anencoded message for wireless transmission. In one example, convolutionalencoder 1102 in a BS 110 (or a UE 120 on the reverse path) receivesmessage 1120 for transmission. Message 1120 may contain data and/orencoded voice or other content directed to the receiving device. Encoder1102 encodes the message using a suitable modulation and coding scheme(MCS), typically selected based on a configuration defined by BS 110 oranother network entity. Encoded bitstream 1122 produced by encoder 1102may then be selectively punctured by puncturing module 1104, which maybe a separate device or component, or which may be integrated withencoder 1102. Puncturing module 1104 may determine that bitstream 1122should be punctured prior to transmission, or transmitted withoutpuncturing. The decision to puncture bitstream 1122 is typically madebased on network conditions, network configuration, RAN definedpreferences and/or for other reasons. Bitstream 1122 may be puncturedaccording to puncture pattern 1112 and used to encode message 1120.Puncturing module 1104 provides output 1124 to mapper 1106 thatgenerates a sequence of Tx symbols 1126 that are modulated, amplifiedand otherwise processed by Tx chain 1108 to produce an RF signal 1128for transmission through antenna 1110.

Output 1124 of puncturing module 1104 may be the unpunctured bitstream1122 or a punctured version of the bitstream 1122, according to whethermodem portion 1150 is configured to puncture the bitstream 1122. In oneexample, parity and/or other error correction bits may be punctured inoutput 1124 of encoder 1102 in order to transmit message 1120 within alimited bandwidth of the RF channel. In another example, the bitstreammay be punctured to reduce the power needed to transmit message 1120, toavoid interference, or for other network-related reasons. Thesepunctured codeword bits are not transmitted.

The decoders and decoding algorithms used to decode LDPC codewordsoperate by exchanging messages within the graph along the edges andupdating these messages by performing computations at the nodes based onthe incoming messages. Each variable node in the graph is initiallyprovided with a soft bit, termed a received value, that indicates anestimate of the associated bit's value as determined by observationsfrom, for example, the communications channel. Ideally, the estimatesfor separate bits are statistically independent. This ideal may beviolated in practice. A received word is comprised of a collection ofreceived values.

FIG. 12 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a decoder, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 12 is asimplified schematic 1200 illustrating a portion of a RF modem 1250 thatmay be configured to receive and decode a wirelessly transmitted signalincluding a punctured encoded message. The punctured codeword bits maybe treated as erased. For example, the log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) ofthe punctured nodes may be set to 0 at initialization. De-puncturing mayalso include deshortening of shortened bits. These shortened bits arenot included in a transmission and, at the receiver/decoder, shortenedbits are treated as known bits. In various examples, modem 1250receiving the signal may reside at the UE, at the BS, or at any othersuitable apparatus or means for carrying out the described functions.Antenna 1202 provides an RF signal 1220 to a receiver. RF chain 1204processes and demodulates RF signal 1220 and may provide a sequence ofsymbols 1222 to demapper 1226, which produces a bitstream 1224representative of the encoded message.

Demapper 1206 may provide a depunctured bitstream 1224. In one example,demapper 1206 may include a depuncturing module that can be configuredto insert null values at locations in the bitstream at which puncturedbits were deleted by the transmitter. The depuncturing module may beused when the puncture pattern 1210 used to produce the puncturedbitstream at the transmitter is known. Puncture pattern 1210 can be usedto identify LLRs 1228 that may be ignored during decoding of bitstream1224 by convolutional decoder 1208. The LLRs may be associated with aset of depunctured bit locations in the bitstream 1224. Accordingly,decoder 1208 may produce decoded message 1226 with reduced processingoverhead by ignoring the identified LLRs 1228. The LDPC decoder mayinclude a plurality of processing elements to perform the parity checkor variable node operations in parallel. For example, when processing acodeword with lifting size Z, the LDPC decoder may utilize a number (Z)of processing elements to perform parity check operations on all edgesof a lifted graph, concurrently.

Processing efficiency of decoder 1208 may be improved by configuringdecoder 1208 to ignore LLRs 1228 that correspond to punctured bits in amessage transmitted in a punctured bitstream 1222. The puncturedbitstream 1222 may have been punctured according to a puncturing schemethat defines certain bits to be removed from an encoded message. In oneexample, certain parity or other error-correction bits may be removed. Apuncturing pattern may be expressed in a puncturing matrix or table thatidentifies the location of bits to be punctured in each message. Apuncturing scheme may be selected to reduce processing overhead used todecode the message 1226 while maintaining compliance with data rates onthe communication channel and/or with transmission power limitations setby the network. A resultant punctured bitstream typically exhibits theerror-correcting characteristics of a high rate error-correction code,but with less redundancy. Accordingly, puncturing may be effectivelyemployed to reduce processing overhead at the decoder 1208 in thereceiver when channel conditions produce a relatively high signal tonoise ratio (SNR).

At the receiver, the same decoder used for decoding non-puncturedbitstreams can typically be used for decoding punctured bitstreams,regardless of how many bits have been punctured. In conventionalreceivers, the LLR information is typically de-punctured before decodingis attempted by filling LLRs for punctured states or positions(de-punctured LLRs) with 0's. The decoder may disregard de-puncturedLLRs that effectively carry no information based, at least in part, onwhich bits are punctured. The decoder may treat shortened bits as knownbits (e.g., set to 0).

Example Low-Density Parity-Check Base Graph Selection for New Radio

NR standardization has introduced two low-density parity-check (LDPC)base graphs (BG1, BG2) from which an LDPC code may be derived forencoding data. On each slot transmission, one of the base graphs (BGs)is selected for usage, i.e., for deriving an LDPC code used to encodethe transmission. The base graph (e.g., BG1 or BG2) used for theencoding is implicitly indicated by the code block size and code rate ofthe transmission.

In typical operation, a BS transmits a choice of modulation and codingscheme (MCS) and a resource allocation (RA) in downlink controlinformation (DCI) corresponding to a data transmission (e.g., acodeword) that the BS is transmitting or will transmit. A UE receivesthe DCI and, if the DCI is intended for the UE, then the UE candetermine a transport block size (TBS) for the data transmission basedon the MCS and RA and according to a network specification. Upondetermination of the TBS, the UE can determine the LDPC BG used toencode the data transmission based on values of the code block size andcode rate implied by the TBS and RA. If the UE does not successfullyreceive the data transmission, then the BS may retransmit the data in aretransmission. For retransmissions, regardless of any new MCS and RAchosen for the retransmission, the BS encodes the data using the same BGas used for the original data transmission, and the UE selects the BGused in the original data transmission for decoding the retransmissionsto ensure proper hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ)combining and LDPC decoding of the combined transmissions (e.g., theoriginal data transmission and any retransmissions).

When a BS sends a retransmission, the BS uses a same BG for deriving acode for encoding the retransmission as used for deriving a code forencoding the original data transmission, but the BS may choose adifferent MCS and RA than used in the original data transmission. Whilethe MCS and RA for the retransmission are selected by the BS to ensurethat the implied TBS of the retransmission is the same as the TBS usedfor the original data transmission, the code rate and, hence, theindicated base graph may change from the code rate and BG indicated forthe original transmission. If the UE then decodes with the wrong BG, thedata channel will not be correctly received.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, techniques are providedfor a UE to determine the BG used in a retransmission in situations inwhich the UE misses (e.g., fails to properly decode, fails to receive)the control information for the original data transmission or theoriginal data transmission.

FIG. 13 illustrates example operations 1300 for wireless communication,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations1300 may be performed, for example, by a base station (e.g., BS 110 ashown in FIG. 1) comprising a processor in electrical communication witha memory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications.

Operations 1300 begin, at block 1302, by the BS transmitting, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, a first codeword to a userequipment (UE), the first codeword encoded using a first low-densityparity-check (LDPC) code derived from a base graph (BG) selected basedon a code block size (CBS) and a first code rate of the transmission.For example, BS 110 a transmits a first codeword to UE 120 a, the firstcodeword encoded using a first LDPC code derived from a BG (e.g., BG1)selected (from a set of BG1 and BG2) based on a CBS and a first coderate of the transmission.

At block 1304, the BS obtains, by the transceiver circuit using the oneor more antenna elements, an indication that the UE did not receive thefirst codeword. Continuing the example from above, the BS obtains anindication that the UE did not receive the first codeword, such as theBS not receiving an acknowledgment (ACK) of the first codeword from theUE.

At block 1306, the BS selects, by the processor, a second code rate fora retransmission of information bits of the first codeword, wherein theselection is from a restricted set of code rates designed to ensure theUE selects the same BG to decode the retransmission. Continuing theexample, the BS selects a second code rate for a retransmission ofinformation bits of the first codeword, wherein the selection is from arestricted set of code rates designed to ensure the UE selects the sameBG (e.g., BG1 from the set of BG1 and BG2) to decode the retransmission.

At block 1308, the BS retransmits, by the transceiver circuit using theone or more antenna elements, the information bits in a second codewordaccording to the selected second code rate. Continuing the example fromabove, the BS retransmits the information bits in a second codewordaccording to the rate selected in block 1306.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, a BS may put arestriction on a code rate used for retransmissions, such that noambiguity (e.g., ambiguity regarding which BG a UE should use indecoding the retransmissions) results. The operations 1300, describedabove with reference to FIG. 13, are an example of one technique forputting a restriction on a code rate used for retransmissions.

In aspects of the present disclosure, a mapping of code block sizeand/or code rate to BG choice (e.g., BG1 or BG2) may be initiallyspecified, but a transmitting device (e.g., a BS) may restrict selectionof code rates so that no ambiguity can result. For example, an initialmapping may indicate:

choose BG2 if:

CBS is less than or equal to a first threshold (e.g., CBS≤292 bits);

code rate is less than or equal to a second threshold (e.g., code rate≤0.25); or

CBS is less than or equal to a third threshold AND code rate is lessthan or equal to a fourth threshold (e.g., CBS≤3824 bits and code rate≤0.67);

otherwise, choose BG1.

In the example, for all original transmissions and retransmissions wherethe CBS is less than or equal to the third threshold (e.g., CBS≤3824bits), the transmitting device (e.g., a BS) restricts the choice of MCSand/or RA on the original transmission and the retransmissions such thatthe code rate is always less than or equal to the fourth threshold(e.g., code rate ≤0.67). Retransmissions will be guaranteed to have asame TBS sizing and therefore a same code block sizing. With thedescribed additional restriction on code rate, choice of BG (e.g., BG1or BG2) from which the receiving device is to derive an LDPC code todecode the retransmission becomes unambiguous. That is, a wirelessdevice (e.g., a UE) that misses the original transmission and receivesthe retransmission will determine which BG to use based on the CBS andthe code rate of the retransmission, and the transmitting device selectsthe MCS and/or RA for the original transmission and the retransmissionsuch that the code rate for the original transmission and theretransmission always indicates the same BG (e.g., BG2).

FIG. 14 illustrates example operations 1400 for wireless communication,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations1400 may be performed, for example, by a base station (e.g., BS 110shown in FIG. 1) comprising a processor in electrical communication witha memory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications.

Operations 1400 begin, at block 1402, by the BS selecting, by theprocessor and based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and aresource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG)stored in said memory, from which to derive a low density parity check(LDPC) code for use in encoding data bits in the codeword (e.g.,encoding data bits of a bitstream such that some redundant bits areincluded in the codeword). For example, BS 110 selects, based on an MCSand a RA for transmitting a codeword, BG1 to derive an LDPC code for usein encoding data bits in the codeword.

At block 1404, the BS encodes, by an encoder circuit, the data bits togenerate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG.Continuing the example from above, the BS encodes the data bits togenerate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from BG1.

At block 1406, the BS transmits, by a transceiver circuit, the codewordusing the MCS via resources of the RA using one or more antenna elementsin electrical communication with the transceiver circuit. Continuing theexample from above, the BS transmits the codeword using the MCS viaresources (e.g., time and frequency resources) of the RA.

FIG. 15 illustrates example operations 1500 for wireless communication,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations1500 may be performed, for example, by a user equipment (e.g., UE 120 ashown in FIG. 1) comprising a processor in electrical communication witha memory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications. Operations 1500 may beconsidered complementary to operations 1400, described above withreference to FIG. 14.

Operations 1500 begin, at block 1502, by the UE receiving, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resourceallocation (RA) for transmission of a codeword. For example, UE 120 areceives control information (e.g., a DCI from BS 110 a) indicating anMCS and an RA for transmission of a codeword.

At block 1504, the UE selects, by the processor and based on the MCS andthe RA, a base graph (BG), from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code for use in decoding the codeword. Continuing theexample from above, the UE selects, based on the MCS and the RAindicated in the control information received in block 1502, BG1 toderive an LDPC code for use in decoding the codeword.

At block 1506, the UE receives, by the transceiver circuit using the oneor more antenna elements, the codeword via resources of the RA.Continuing the example from above, the UE receives the codeword viaresources (e.g., time and frequency resources) of the RA indicated inthe control information received in block 1502.

At block 1508, the UE decodes, by a decoder circuit, the codeword usingthe LDPC code derived from the selected BG. Continuing the example fromabove, the UE decodes the codeword using the LDPC code derived from BG1.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, BSs and UEs of acommunications system may explicitly ensure that each TBS size alwaysmaps to a same BG choice regardless of code block size and code rate,thus ensuring that there is no ambiguity in selecting a BG when a BStransmits and a UE receives a retransmission.

In aspects of the present disclosure, a BS may use a same set ofcriteria for choosing BG as previously described above, i.e. choose BG2if CBS is less than or equal to a first threshold (e.g., CBS≤292 bits),if code rate is less than or equal to a second threshold (e.g., coderate ≤0.25), or if CBS is less than or equal to a third threshold ANDcode rate is less than or equal to a fourth threshold (e.g., CBS≤3824bits AND code rate ≤0.67); otherwise choose BG1.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, the BS and UE in awireless communications system may determine a mapping of TBS sizes fromMCS and RA selections. The BS and UE may consider all possible TBS sizesand map each TBS size to a particular BG1 or BG2 selection, regardlessof code block size and code rate. The BS and UE may override the BGchoice from above (i.e., BG choice based on CBS and code rate) with thechoice of BG based on the TBS size. For the case where only one MCS andRA combination produces a TBS size, then there is no need to overridethe BG choice based on MCS and RA.

FIG. 16 illustrates example operations 1600 for wireless communication,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations1600 may be performed, for example, by a base station (e.g., BS 110shown in FIG. 1) comprising a processor in electrical communication witha memory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications.

Operations 1600 begin, at block 1602, with the BS transmitting, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of a codeword. For example, BS110 transmits control information (e.g., a DCI) indicating (e.g., in afield of the DCI) the BS used BG1 to derive an LDPC code used inencoding bits of a codeword (e.g., a codeword transmitted usingresources indicated in the DCI).

At block 1604, the BS encodes, by an encoder circuit, data bits togenerate the codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG.Continuing the example from above, the BS encodes data bits to generatethe codeword using the LDPC code derived from BG1.

At block 1606, the BS transmits, by the transceiver circuit using theone or more antenna elements, the codeword. Continuing the example fromabove, the BS transmits the codeword.

FIG. 17 illustrates example operations 1700 for wireless communication,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations1700 may be performed, for example, by a user equipment (e.g., UE 120 ashown in FIG. 1) comprising a processor in electrical communication witha memory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications. Operations 1700 may beconsidered complementary to operations 1600, described above withreference to FIG. 16.

Operations 1700 begin, at block 1702, with the UE receiving, by atransceiver circuit using one or more antenna elements in electricalcommunication with the transceiver circuit, control informationindicating a base graph (BG) from which to derive a low density paritycheck (LDPC) code used in encoding bits of a codeword. For example, UE120 a receives control information (e.g., a DCI) indicating (e.g., in afield of the DCI) BG1 to derive an LDPC code used in encoding bits of acodeword.

At 1704, the UE receives, by the transceiver circuit using the one ormore antenna elements, the codeword. Continuing the example from above,the UE receives the codeword.

At block 1706, the UE decodes, by a decoder circuit, the codeword usingthe LDPC code derived from the selected BG. Continuing the example fromabove, the UE decodes the codeword received in block 1704 using the LDPCcode derived from BG1.

According to aspects of the present disclosure, a BS may explicitlyindicate a BG to use in decoding a transmission in a downlink controlinformation (DCI). That is, a field and/or a bit in a DCI may directlyindicate a BG to be used in decoding a data transmission scheduled bythe DCI. Explicitly indicating a BG in a DCI clearly removes ambiguity,but at the expense of increasing control overhead in a wirelesscommunications system.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the described method. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c,a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples ofthe same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b,b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information),accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also,“determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishingand the like.

In some cases, rather than actually transmitting a frame, a device mayhave an interface to output a frame for transmission. For example, aprocessor may output a frame, via a bus interface, to an RF front endfor transmission. Similarly, rather than actually receiving a frame, adevice may have an interface to obtain a frame received from anotherdevice. For example, a processor may obtain (or receive) a frame, via abus interface, from an RF front end for transmission.

The various operations of methods described above may be performed byany suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions.The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s)and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally,where there are operations illustrated in figures, those operations mayhave corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components withsimilar numbering.

For example, means for encoding, means for determining, means forselecting, and/or means for generating may include one or moreprocessors, such as the TX MIMO processor 430, Transmit processor 420,and/or the Controller/Processor 440 of the BS 110 illustrated in FIG. 4;the TX MIMO processor 466, Transmit Processor 464, and/or theController/Processor 480 of the UE 120 illustrated in FIG. 4; and/or theencoder 1102 of the encoder 1100 illustrated in FIG. 11. Means forpuncturing may comprise a processing system, which may include one ormore of processors of FIG. 4, and/or the puncturing module 1104 of theencoder 1100 illustrated in FIG. 11. Means for transmitting includes atransmitter, which may include the Transmit processor 420, TX MIMOprocessor 430, modulator(s) 432 a-432 t, and/or the antenna(s) 434 a-434t of the BS 110 illustrated in FIG. 4; the Transmit processor 464, TXMIMO Processor 466, modulator(s) 454 a-454 r, and/or antenna(s) 452a-452 r of the UE 120 illustrated in FIG. 4; and/or the TX chain 1108and antenna 1110 of the encoder 1100 illustrated in FIG. 11.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD),discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration maycomprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing systemmay be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include anynumber of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specificapplication of the processing system and the overall design constraints.The bus may link together various circuits including a processor,machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may beused to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processingsystem via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement thesignal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a wirelessnode (see FIG. 1), a user interface (e.g., keypad, display, mouse,joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus may also linkvarious other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltageregulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are wellknown in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further. Theprocessor may be implemented with one or more general-purpose and/orspecial-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors,microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitry that can executesoftware. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implementthe described functionality for the processing system depending on theparticular application and the overall design constraints imposed on theoverall system.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmittedover as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium.Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Computer-readable media include both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. The processor may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storagemedia. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processorsuch that the processor can read information from, and write informationto, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may beintegral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable mediamay include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data,and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions storedthereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed bythe processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition,the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integratedinto the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or generalregister files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include,by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (ReadOnly Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or anycombination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in acomputer-program product.

A software module may include a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media.The computer-readable media may include a number of software modules.The software modules include instructions that, when executed by anapparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to performvarious functions. The software modules may include a transmissionmodule and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in asingle storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices.By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a harddrive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the softwaremodule, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache toincrease access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into ageneral register file for execution by the processor. When referring tothe functionality of a software module below, it will be understood thatsuch functionality is implemented by the processor when executinginstructions from that software module.

Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Forexample, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or otherremote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared(IR), radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, asused herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects computer-readable media maycomprise non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media).In addition, for other aspects computer-readable media may comprisetransitory computer-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

Thus, certain aspects may comprise a computer program product forperforming the operations presented herein. For example, such a computerprogram product may comprise a computer-readable medium havinginstructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions beingexecutable by one or more processors to perform the operations describedherein.

Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriatemeans for performing the methods and techniques described herein can bedownloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a wireless node and/or basestation as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to aserver to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methodsdescribed herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can beprovided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage mediumsuch as a compact disc (CD) or floppy disk, etc.), such that a wirelessnode and/or base station can obtain the various methods upon coupling orproviding the storage means to the device. Moreover, any other suitabletechnique for providing the methods and techniques described herein to adevice can be utilized.

It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the preciseconfiguration and components illustrated above. Various modifications,changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the methods and apparatus described above without departingfrom the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for wireless communications by a userequipment (UE) comprising a processor in electrical communication with amemory, the processor configured to obtain data from the memory inpreparation for wireless communications, the method comprising:receiving, by a transceiver circuit using one or more antenna elementsin electrical communication with the transceiver circuit, controlinformation indicating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and resourceallocation (RA) for transmission of a codeword; selecting, by theprocessor and based on the MCS and the RA, a base graph (BG), from whichto derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for use in decoding thecodeword; receiving, by the transceiver circuit using the one or moreantenna elements, the codeword via resources of the RA; and decoding, bya decoder circuit, the codeword using the LDPC code derived from theselected BG.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the BGcomprises selecting the BG from a set of two base graphs.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein selecting the BG comprises: determining a codingrate based on the MCS; calculating a code block size (CBS) based on thecoding rate and the RA; and selecting the BG based on the CBS and thecoding rate.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting the BG furthercomprises: selecting a first BG from a set of two base graphs when: theCBS is less than or equal to 292 bits, the coding rate is less than orequal to 0.25, or the CBS is less than or equal to 3824 bits and thecoding rate is less than or equal to 0.67; and selecting the second BGfrom the set of the two base graphs when the first BG is not selected.5. A method for wireless communications by a base station (BS)comprising a processor in electrical communication with a memory, theprocessor configured to obtain data from the memory in preparation forwireless communications, the method comprising: selecting, by theprocessor and based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and aresource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph (BG)stored in said memory, from which to derive a low density parity check(LDPC) code for use in encoding data bits; encoding, by an encodercircuit, the data bits to generate the codeword using the LDPC codederived from the selected BG; and transmitting, by a transceivercircuit, the codeword using the MCS via resources of the RA using one ormore antenna elements in electrical communication with the transceivercircuit.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the BG comprisesselecting the BG from a set of two base graphs.
 7. The method of claim5, wherein selecting the BG comprises: determining a coding rate basedon the MCS; calculating a code block size (CBS) based on the coding rateand the RA; and selecting the BG based on the CBS and the coding rate.8. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting the BG further comprises:selecting a first BG from a set of two base graphs when: the CBS is lessthan or equal to 292 bits, the coding rate is less than or equal to0.25, or the CBS is less than or equal to 3824 bits and the coding rateis less than or equal to 0.67; and selecting the second BG from the setof the two base graphs when the first BG is not selected.
 9. The methodof claim 5, further comprising: obtaining, by the transceiver circuit,an indication that a user equipment (UE) did not receive the codeword;selecting, by the processor, a second code rate for a retransmission ofthe bits of the codeword, wherein the selection is from a restricted setof code rates designed to ensure the UE selects a same BG to decode theretransmission; and retransmitting, by the transceiver circuit using theone or more antenna elements and the processor, the data bits in anothercodeword according to the selected second code rate.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein retransmitting the data bits comprises: selecting, bythe processor, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a resourceallocation (RA) for the retransmitting, based on the selected secondcode rate; and transmitting, by the transceiver circuit, the secondcodeword using the selected MCS and via resources of the RA using theone or more antenna elements.
 11. An apparatus for wirelesscommunications, comprising: a processor configured to: cause theapparatus to receive control information indicating a modulation andcoding scheme (MCS) and resource allocation (RA) for transmission of acodeword; select a base graph (BG), from which to derive a low densityparity check (LDPC) code for use in decoding the codeword, based on theMCS and the RA; cause the apparatus to receive the codeword viaresources of the RA; and decode the codeword using the LDPC code derivedfrom the selected BG; and a memory coupled with the processor.
 12. Theapparatus of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select theBG by selecting the BG from a set of two base graphs.
 13. The apparatusof claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select the BG by:determining a coding rate based on the MCS; calculating a code blocksize (CBS) based on the coding rate and the RA; and selecting the BGbased on the CBS and the coding rate.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13,wherein the processor is further configured to select the BG by:selecting a first BG from a set of two base graphs when: the CBS is lessthan or equal to 292 bits, the coding rate is less than or equal to0.25, or the CBS is less than or equal to 3824 bits and the coding rateis less than or equal to 0.67; and selecting the second BG from the setof the two base graphs when the processor does not select the first BG.15. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising: a processorconfigured to: select, based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) anda resource allocation (RA) for transmitting a codeword, a base graph(BG) from which to derive a low density parity check (LDPC) code for usein encoding data bits in the codeword; encode the data bits to generatethe codeword using the LDPC code derived from the selected BG; and causethe apparatus to transmit the codeword using the MCS via resources ofthe RA; and a memory coupled with the processor.
 16. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein the processor is configured to select the BG byselecting the BG from a set of two base graphs.
 17. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein the processor is configured to select the BG by:determining a coding rate based on the MCS; calculating a code blocksize (CBS) based on the coding rate and the RA; and selecting the BGbased on the CBS and the coding rate.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17,wherein the processor is further configured to select the BG by:selecting a first BG from a set of two base graphs when: the CBS is lessthan or equal to 292 bits, the coding rate is less than or equal to0.25, or the CBS is less than or equal to 3824 bits and the coding rateis less than or equal to 0.67; and selecting the second BG from the setof the two base graphs when the first BG is not selected.
 19. Theapparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to:obtain an indication that a user equipment (UE) did not receive thecodeword; select a second code rate for a retransmission of the bits ofthe codeword, wherein the selection is from a restricted set of coderates designed to ensure the UE selects a same BG to decode theretransmission; and cause the apparatus to retransmit the data bits inanother codeword according to the selected second code rate.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to cause theapparatus to retransmit the data bits by: selecting a modulation andcoding scheme (MCS) and a resource allocation (RA) for theretransmitting, based on the selected second code rate; and causing theapparatus to transmit the second codeword using the selected MCS and viaresources of the RA.